Skydiver Plans Supersonic Jump from Edge of Space

NEW YORK - A
skydiver leaping from the edge of space could smash the nearly 50-year-old
record for highest jump ever later this year, and set a new one as the first
person to go supersonic in freefall.

More than
just a stunt, the team sponsored by energy drink company Red Bull noted their
findings could help lead to escape plans during spaceflights.

Austrian
skydiver Felix Baumgartner, who became the first person to cross the English
Channel in freefall in 2003, will make the attempt using a nearly 2,500-pound (11,339-kg)
pressurized capsule hoisted up to the edge of
space by a single helium-filled plastic balloon some 600 feet (182 meters) wide.
?After a roughly three-hour-long flight to roughly 120,000 feet (36,576 meters)
? more than four times the height of Mt. Everest ? Baumgartner will rotate the
capsule's four-foot-wide door off to one side, grab the hand rails on either
side of the exit, and leap off.

With the
leap, Baumgartner could potentially break the records for highest
parachute jump, as well as longest and fastest freefall. His team expects
him to reach supersonic speeds 35 seconds after he leaps, given how little air
will hold him back in such near-vacuum conditions.

The current
world record for highest jump was set on August 16, 1960, when U.S. Air Force
Captain Joe Kittinger jumped from a balloon at an altitude of some 102,800 feet
(31,333 meters).

"Hell
no, I didn't hesitate," Kittinger recalled of his jump. "When it came
time to jump, I was happy as hell to go, to go back to where it's friendly and
fun. Earth is friendly and fun, and it's not friendly and fun at 20 miles up."

Baumgartner?s
team plans make its jump attempt in 2010, but a final target date will be
determined after a series of final tests are performed.

Risky
record jump

Many have
attempted to surpass Kittinger's achievement, but all failed, with New Jersey
native Nick Piantanida dying in his 1966 try. Now Kittinger will help advise
Baumgartner on his jump.

Baumgartner
will face extreme danger. For instance, the forces he will face nearing the
speed of sound "we know with aircraft can break them apart," said
project medical director Jonathan Clark. "We've never had a person break
the sound barrier without the aid of a vehicle before, so we're dealing with some
unknowns here." Still, he pointed out one known instance of a pilot
surviving the destruction of a plane at three times the speed of sound, so
survival is definitely possible.

The
extremely thin air is also a threat. At 120,000 feet, the atmospheric pressure
is so low ? just 0.2 percent that at sea level ? blood will boil. Above the
so-called 'Armstrong line' of 63,000 feet (19,200 meters), Thompson explained
that if Baumgartner opened up his suit or helmet, gases start escaping from the
body. "It sounds melodramatic, but you start bleeding from your
eyes," explained project technical director, Art Thompson.

To survive,
Baumgartner will employ a modified version of airtight, fully pressurized
spacesuits currently employed by NASA and the U.S. Air Force, with more flexible
joints. This will let him bend to achieve the standard, belly-down skydiving
position needed to slow down.

The
super-low pressure Baumgartner faces can also lead to decompression sickness,
known to underwater divers as the bends, which involves nitrogen bubbles
forming in the body. To prevent this risk, he will breathe only pure oxygen
during the flight as well as two hours beforehand to flush nitrogen out of his
body. However, pure oxygen is naturally highly flammable, which means
electronics on the suit have to be designed to minimize any risk of sparking
whatsoever, with sensors working on millionths of volts instead of thousandths,
for instance.

Another
hurdle Baumgartner faces is uncontrolled spin, which could render him
unconscious. If need be, he can deploy a five-foot-wide drogue parachute that
would stabilize his flight. Sensors on the suit will constantly monitor his
acceleration for warning signs of spinning, as well as checking on his heart
rate and position, transmitting data to the ground team via a radio in a pack
mounted on his chest.

Cold,
long flight

Inside the
capsule, Baumgartner will be exposed to as much as minus 140 degrees Fahrenheit
(minus 95 degrees Celsius), so he will have heated foot-warmers and hand-muffs
to keep his extremities warm, and his face shield can heat to keep it from
fogging up. However, the researchers aren't just concerned with keeping him
warm, but also in making sure he doesn't get too hot and sweaty.

"We
have to be careful how we draw off the moisture, since we don't want it to turn
into ice," Thompson said. "You could freeze yourself in the
suit." Dehydration is also a major concern, as they want to prevent
disorientation ? "not knowing when to pull the chute is a bad thing,"
he added ? as well as potentially catastrophic vomiting.

After
freefalling for roughly six minutes, decelerating to some 120 mph (193 kph)
just from air resistance, Baumgartner should open his parachute at roughly
5,000 feet (1,524 meters). After he lands, the ground team can remotely cut the
capsule loose from the balloon and have it drift down on a triple cluster of
parachutes, and a crush pad of corrugated fiberglass epoxy laminate on its
bottom will cushion its fall.

Test
jumps on tap

Two
preparatory flights will be conducted at 65,000 and 90,000 feet (19,812 to 27,432
meters) to catch any problems that might arise. Currently Baumgartner is
undergoing rigorous tests in the suit in vertical wind tunnels to simulate
falling, as well as in extreme cold and in vacuum chambers. In the two or three
days before launch, he will go on a "low-residue" diet to reduce any
risk of problems should he need to relieve himself during flight.

Red Bull
would not reveal how much they spent on the project, and while it said the
project would launch this year from North America, it has not specified a date
or launch site yet. This uncertainty depends partly on finding the ideal
weather conditions for the flight. "We want a still, calm
environment," Thompson explained. Although they hope Baumgartner lands
near his launch site, "he could drift maybe 150 to 200 miles off," he
added.

By proving
that people can survive a jump from that speed and altitude, the project hopes
to show that astronauts might achieve the same if they ever need to escape from
a spacecraft.

"The
lessons we hope to learn from this suit could help eventually be used for
future applications in the Orion
program," the successor to NASA's space shuttle, Thompson said.

"I
didn't do it to set a record," Kittinger said of his jump. "I went to
gather useful scientific data. Felix will do the same. And he'll do a great
job."